Audrey Hepburn: rising star

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An Illustrated magazine 1952 profile that introduced the soon-to-be icon as simply a ‘pretty showgirl’

Long before Audrey Hepburn became reduced to a single image of beehive hair,
sunglasses and a cigarette holder (see many a university student wall for
evidence), she was just a young dancer on the verge of a career. It was at
this point, in 1952, that Illustrated magazine ran a profile of the
23-year-old “pretty showgirl” with a few bit parts to her name.

Photographer Joseph McKeown was commissioned to shoot Hepburn on her “day off”
on the Sussex coast. As she paddled, frolicked and posed for the camera,
Hepburn was not especially pleased with this arrangement. She was already